An Alternative to Evolution: Expounded Upon (Introduction)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Friday, July 20, 2018, 16:59 (2107 days ago) @ David Turell

Tony: However, I do not think the designer would have, or possibly could have (due to inherent limitations of the environment), done it this way. It is too haphhazard. Personally, I think that he would have programmed a subclass of Bird, for example Finch. So, Finch inherits all the traits of Bird, then override the ones that must be overridden, discards any unnecessary data. Within the Finch subclass, there would be certain traits, such as beak_length, feather_color, etc. and tests for acceptable values, most likely within a given range that could be measured from 0 to 1, or -1 to 1. The actual values don't matter, only that I am referring to variation within a limited specified window for any given trait. There would likely be checks that compared traits to ensure that no non-functional combinations occurred. Doing it in this manner seems consistent with what we see in terms of variation within ranges without the chaos of random chance.

David: You have given your programmer approach and I find it very instructional and how I might imagine God doing it, but with the proviso that God also controls the environment which would limit the haphazard issue.

Tony: I think it is important to distinguish what you mean by control.

David: If God created the universe it should be simple to also make create whatever type of climate that is needed. Do you see a limit to God's abilities?

I don't see a limit to God's abilities, however, I do see limits within the material universe. Just like a good engineer must consider the limits of the materials they are using for their creations, so to must God. Nothing that we see in existence is shoehorned or forced into place in a way that defies the laws governing the material world. God does not override his own laws because they are there for good reason. Science has shown us numerous examples of things that, were they not just so, would cause the universe and everything in it to fall to pieces.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.